Almost 70 years ago, a Winter Park nursing home opened to help care for elderly Black residents who during segregation had no place to go. And for decades the institution fulfilled that mission.
But operators of the facility, known today as The Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center, say it will close permanently in early December due to skyrocketing costs and stagnant Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
The board that operates the facility, long determined to provide top-quality care to low-income residents, realized in August that the end was near. Now efforts are underway to relocate residents of the 40-bed facility on Morse Avenue and then sell the 2-acre campus.
“The decision was painful and was not made lightly,” said Richard Baldwin Jr., chairman of the nonprofit’s board of trustees, who has been involved in the home since 2008.
The facility is one of only seven in the metro Orlando area to earn the highest rating — five stars — from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for quality of care and staffing.
The Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center in Winter Park features a colorful garden where residents can visit with friends and family or simply enjoy some quiet time outdoors Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
The facility is named after Mary Lee DePugh, who moved to Winter Park in 1937 from the Chicago suburbs at the request of a wealthy widow for whom she’d worked for as a housekeeper years earlier. Not long after arriving, DePugh helped found the Ideal Woman’s Club which then established a dental and medical clinic for the mostly Black population of the Hannibal Square community, where she also lived. It operated for about 20 years.
Eventually she turned her focus to care of the elderly but died in 1949 at age 83 without ever seeing her goal fully blossom. Fortunately the Black woman’s efforts had supporters, including Rollins College’s 1951 graduate Fred Rogers — who’d go on to create and host the groundbreaking PBS show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
With their backing, the nursing home opened in 1956. Baldwin said he was told it was the first licensed facility in Florida to serve as a nursing home for Black residents.
With its lush campus garden filled with colorful coleus, Mexican petunias and other foliage the facility offers a refuge where residents can visit friends and family or interact with children from nearby Welbourne Nursery and Preschool, who sometimes visit.
Liz Barton, DePugh’s administrator, said staff are working to relocate the remaining 17 long-term residents, two of whom have lived there for about 25 years. The two others are short-term residents expected to be discharged by the end of the month. The average age of residents is 85 to 90.
An undated image of Mary Lee DePugh, who moved to Winter Park in 1937 from the Chicago suburbs and worked to provide access to health care for the mostly Black Hannibal Square community. Her efforts ultimately led to the construction of what’s known today as The Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center. (Provide photo)
“We’re pretty comfortable that we’ll have pretty much everybody discharged by the end of November,” Barton said. “If possible we’d like to see groups of residents go to the same kind of facility so they’re not uncomfortable and they have some buddies and it’s familiar.”
Trustee Bob Showalter, a Winter Park native who joined the board in 2021, said the COVID pandemic was the beginning of the end for the facility.
“The pandemic caused tremendous increases in costs for us that stayed after the pandemic,” said Showalter, a retired aviation entrepreneur. “Simply put, at 40 beds which is what we were, the economics can’t work.”
Baldwin, a Winter park native and retired funeral home owner, and Showalter have close personal connections to The Gardens. Baldwin’s wife, Mary Alice, was a private pay resident during the three years leading up to her death from cancer in 2021. For Showalter, about 34 years ago a woman who helped raise him spent the final 18 months of her life there.
Baldwin said the mission of what started as the Mary Lee DePugh Nursing Home with just a few beds has always been to help the less fortunate in the community. Most current residents are on Medicaid, which provides health care for low-income individuals.
As a nonprofit the facility has always run at a near-break-even level, he said, but in recent years Medicaid reimbursement rates have failed to keep pace with soaring operating costs. To help with capital expenses The Gardens would seek grants from foundations.
Barton said Medicaid currently reimburses about $280 per patient per day while facility costs are generally up to $550 daily per patient.
The foundation’s tax returns available to view on IRS.gov show some of the problems. From 2014 to 2021, it had a surplus, but then in 2022, its tax return showed a deficit and it did again in 2023, when it was in the red by almost $256,000.
“Every month it seemed to get a little worse,” Baldwin said. “We realized pretty quickly this is not a sustainable business model unless they’re going to boost Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates — and they’re not going to do that.”
Richard Baldwin Jr., chairman of the board of trustees over The Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center, listens as administrator Liz Barton discusses the upcoming closure of the facility Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. The facility has operated for almost 70 years. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
He said after the facility closes and the property is sold the board will likely take the money and place it with an existing local foundation. It will then use earnings to fund projects that help Winter Park’s needy residents and, thereby, ensure DePugh’s mission continues.
A historical marker the city put up within the last month on the corner of The Gardens’ property recognizes DePugh’s “vision to provide medical services to the Black residents of the Hannibal Square community.”
A short walk from The Gardens is the Shady Park Pioneer Memorial featuring busts of four Black Hannibal Square residents who helped shape the city, DePugh among them.
A bust of Mary Lee DePugh is one of four in the Shady Park Pioneer Memorial honoring Black residents central to the history of Winter Park. It was dedicated in 2024 and is located next to the Winter Park Community Center on New England Avenue. It’s down the street from The Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center named in her honor. (Brian Bell/Orlando Sentinel)
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio was “heartbroken” to hear The Gardens will close, saying she’s long admired the facility for its dedication to the community, its history and its compassionate care of the elderly population.
“The legacy of Mary Lee DePugh will forever live in the hearts of all of the families The Gardens of DePugh has cared for and loved for over 70 years,” she said. “I look forward to seeing her mission to care for our community’s most vulnerable continue in the years to come.”
A look inside one of the 21 rooms for residents of The Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. The nonprofit facility in Winter Park has served the community for almost 70 years but will close in early December. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
